Why It's Time To Step Into Your Greatness

Dear students,

I wrote this for you. I wrote it because something about yoga interests you - or maybe you love it passionately. Either way, that interest or love is a gateway into more of yourself. As the tumult of the world affects the calmest amongst us with newfound anxieties (pick your trauma/drama of the day), we find ourselves at the doorstep of a new age. Will we fight for a better, more just and loving world and our rightful place in it? How do we adapt to extreme weather and climate change in the coming years? Ganesha - in the form of the wise teacher and one who reminds us of what matters most - invites across this new threshold. Us meaning humanity, but also you, individually. It’s time to move out of crisis consciousness and into conscious creation. It’s time to harness our resilience and recognize not only the goodness, but also the greatness we are capable of contributing to the world around us.

This week I start my Wednesday evening Intensive (Step Into Your Greatness), and the first teaching is always Ganesha. He is a beloved elephant-headed being, a mythic god from the Indian tradition. He’s one of my favorites. Ganesha is the “remover of obstacles” but, being an elephant, he is often the VERY LARGE THING IN OUR WAY that requires us to source our creativity and channel our courage in order to move through or around whatever obstacle stands before (or within) us. Ganesha is the grounding force you can tap into in yourself, that helps you access your own inner resilience.

When we’re born as resilient beings but without sufficient support along the way, we can feel inadequate when it comes to navigating daily stresses, not to mention facing life’s darkest difficulties. Ganesha invites us to LISTEN and to TRUST our own instincts and inner guidance.

Fall is a natural threshold when we let go of summer’s abundant light and gradually yield toward the darker and colder months. It’s a perfect time to pause. You know that feeling you have when you have made it (sometimes against all odds) to a yoga class, you take your shoes off, and you walk through the door into the light-filled and quiet yoga studio? Ganesha is that doorway you just walked through. You went from there (wherever that was for you) to here. From doing in all the ways that we are doers, to being. You know you will now have the gift of time with your breath, your body, yourself. You pause, and begin to let go.

I hope that today, on the cusp of the fall equinox, you will pause in some way. Ganesha is the weight of what matters, and so we might pause and reflect on the gifts and challenges of the summer season we are letting go of. We might take time to journal, meditate, or even breathe 10 deep breaths and think about this: what do I want to focus on this fall? What matters? Look up at the trees and find the leaves that have already turned golden or orange. Feel the cooler air on your skin. Change is all around us. Know that you have the capacity for resilience, to adapt to changes you didn’t choose, but also to choose changes for your own growth and joy.

Most of all, remember that Ganesha loves life. He is joyful and loves to laugh. He fills his big belly with the sweetness of life, savoring the gifts of every day. And he knows, as yoga helps us come to learn, that he contains the whole universe inside of him. So yeah, that’s a lot of inner wisdom and resources to tap into. And yes, Ganesha is also YOU.